Having lost before the U.S. Supreme Court in a lawsuit involving the verification
of new voter registrations, Republicans now are turning to the Ohio Supreme Court.

David Myhal, a Republican from New Albany, filed a lawsuit this afternoon asking the state's
highest court to issue an order related to instances when new voter information doesn't match
records in state or federal databases.

Specifically, the lawsuit asks the Ohio Supreme Court to require Secretary of State Jennifer
Brunner to order county elections boards not to count any absentee ballot from voters registered
after Jan. 1 without first checking the statewide voter registration database to ensure there is no
mismatch.

If there is a mismatch, the boards would be required to determine whether the person is an
eligible voter.

"This action seeks this (Ohio Supreme Court's) urgent intervention to remedy the secretary of
state's steadfast refusal to fully implement the Statewide Voter Registration Database (SWVRD) in a
manner required by both federal and state law -- in essence, to share 'mismatch' information
regarding a registrant's driver's license or Social Security information with county boards of
elections in a manner that gives those boards a meaningful opportunity to investigate the
mismatches," the lawsuit says.

The court ordered that arguments by both sides must be filed by next Friday, only 10 days before
the Nov. 4 election.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Brunner this morning, overturning a lower-court order
that she provide to county elections boards by today details of discrepancies discovered with new
voter registrations.

In a 9-0 ruling, the court did not decide whether Brunner was violating federal law by not
providing the information, as the Ohio Republican Party contended in its lawsuit.

Rather, the court said it was unlikely that as a private entity, the GOP had the legal authority
to sue Brunner on the issue or that the lower court had the power to issue its order in this
case.

Justice John Paul Stevens initially reviewed the case but referred the matter for the entire
court to decide.

The ruling had at least temporarily settled a dispute that had worked its way through the lower
federal courts in recent days, with district and appellate judges taking different sides on the
issue.

Brunner, a first-term Democrat, has argued that Republicans were trying to force her to create a
list of voters who could be forced to cast a provisional ballot, which is held for 10 days to
determine eligibility and that she said is "subject to partisan wrangling and legal fights."

"Now that the nation's highest court has ruled in favor of Ohio voters, I encourage everyone to
support the bipartisan system of elections administration in our state," Brunner said. "I ask all
involved to stop the legal maneuvers that unnecessarily shake public confidence."

But the Ohio GOP called on Brunner to provide clear instructions to election administrators on
how to handle questionable voter registration forms and accused her of "actively working to conceal
fraudulent activity in this election."

"This decision was made on a technicality, not on the merits of the case," state Republican
Chairman Robert T. Bennett said. "The justices did not disagree with our argument that Jennifer
Brunner has failed to comply with federal election law. They merely said we don't have a right to
bring a private challenge against her under this particular provision."

The dispute involves what should be done when personal information from newly registered voters
doesn't match state motor vehicle and federal Social Security records after an automatic computer
check is done.

The Republican Party had sued Brunner on grounds she allegedly was violating the federal Help
America Vote Act by not giving counties the results of mismatches as a way to correct registration
errors and weed out any fraud.

When Ohioans register to vote, they must provide their names, addresses, ages and either their
drivers' license numbers or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. Computers seek
to match that information with the state and federal databases.

Initial estimates are that as many as 200,000 of the 660,000 new voter registrations in Ohio
since Jan. 1 have mismatches.

Brunner had argued that the federal law required her to do the matches but did not dictate what
must be done with the mismatches -- and that the law prohibits using mismatches alone from
disqualifying a voter.

She has said she is trying to provide the details but that the statewide voter registration
database was poorly constructed and there appear to be problems with the matching process, raising
doubts about the accuracy of mismatches.

For example, Brunner said it appears that when new voters provide a driver's license number and
it matches motor-vehicle records, the computer still tries to match the Social Security
database -- and a mismatch is returned because the voters left that field blank on their
registration.

Voting-rights groups also insisted that studies have shown a large percentage of the mismatches
are the results of typos when information is entered into databases or legitimate discrepancies,
such as people giving a full name when they register and a shortened name when they get a driver's
license.

Brunner said efforts will be made after the election to correct any problems with the state
database or the matching process.

She and others have expressed concerns that county elections officials already are overburdened
trying to prepare for the Nov. 4 election, and adding work to check the mismatches could cause
confusion and other problems at the polls.

But Republicans insist that if Brunner had been doing her job as chief elections official, she
would have addressed any problems months ago.

The GOP and others argued that if there is a tool to help correct mistakes and catch fraud, it
should be used -- especially with allegations of registration fraud involving ACORN, or the
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

There already have been a spate of elections lawsuits filed, and experts expect there could be
others before the election with Ohio poised to play perhaps a deciding role in the presidential
contest.

Brunner has had a mixed record on the lawsuits decided so far, winning today's case and an Ohio
Supreme Court case involving whether Ohioans could register and immediately cast an absentee ballot
between the start of early voting on Sept. 30 and the Oct. 6 voter-registration deadline.

But she lost challenges to her rulings not to allow outside observers for in-person absentee
voting and to reject applications for absentee ballots printed by Republican John McCain's campaign
if a box on the form wasn't checked.